Ninianne, The Lady of the Lake

In Arthurian legends, the benevolent counterpart to Morgan le Fay was Ninianne, the Lady of the Lake: goddess of youth and strength; the maiden whom the Cailleach kept prisoner on her hill-top fortress during the winter months.

She protected and came to Arthur’s aid whenever he was in trouble; at least in the early years of his reign. In essence, however, both she and Morgan were originally complimentary aspects of the one deity - the Great mother Goddess, Modron, in her paradoxical roles of kindly maiden and wicked old hag. This is the reason why the evil crone and the chaste young maid so often change into their opposites in the legends. The Great mother Goddess once encompassed every facet of womanhood for the early Britons: daughter, virgin, whore, sister, temptress, wife. All life from the womb to the tomb; every birth and every death was her doing. She was the Dea mundi, goddess of the World who turned the incessant wheel of Destiny in the vulgate Death of King Arthur (c.1230)
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On the eve of Camlann, she appeared to Arthur in a dream:
“...the most beautiful woman in the world and lifted him up... high onto a great wheel on which there were many seats, some moving up and some moving down. The king looked and saw that he was sitting on the very summit of the wheel. And the lady asked him: “Arthur, where are you?"
“On a wheel”, he answered...
“And what can you see?”
“I think I can see the whole world and all that it contains.” “That is true”, she said. “You can indeed see it all; and you have been lord of it all until this moment. You have been the greatest king there has ever been. No-one has ever sat higher on the wheel than you; and no-one will fall from it more heavily.”
With that, she turned the wheel violently and Arthur fell all the way to the ground, crushing every bone in his body.

In a sense, the mother Goddess represents all that can be known in life; and the hero is the man who comes to terms with the totality of her being. Firstly, he encounters her in his own mother, who gives him his life, nourishes and protects him. This is the Lady of the Lake’s function in the Arthurian legends. Then he experiences her as his wife, his mistress, his daughter etc. etc., finally meeting her for the last time in the form of the hag of Death, the raven on the battlefield who claims his life. Most men have caught a glimpse of her at some time in their lives during dreams or in childhood. The hero, however, differs from the ordinary man in not allowing himself to be seduced by the single image of herself - be it child or wife - which she projects. He possesses the ability to perceive the goddess in all her forms and to seize the advantage. The rewards for those who take the risk are considerable.

Niall of the Nine Hostages was out hunting one day with his four stepbrothers when he came across the dreaded Cailleach guarding a well in the forest. They were all very thirsty but the goddess stated that she would give water only to the one who kissed her on the lips. Most of the brothers hesitated or flatly refused. Niall, however, declared that he would not only kiss this withered old woman with the deformed body and rotting breath but would hug her as well. And when he had done so, the Cailleach turned into a beautiful woman and bestowed upon him and his descendants, the kingship of Ireland. ”I am Royal Rule”, she told him. “You saw me first as ugly, brutal, loathly...and in the end, beautiful...for he that is king of no matter what, brings out the beauty and the loveliness in it.” Several versions of this story can be found in the Arthurian legends, notably in connection with Gawain.

Similarly, in popular Highland legend, it was death to come upon the Bean-Nighe, the fateful Washer at the Ford. But if one managed to grasp one of her breasts without being seen, one could demand fosterage, and the goddess would be compelled to bestow great favours upon him.

Originally, the Goddess of the World was the deity of both life and death, like the Indian goddess Kali, the loving and terrible mother, whose three main attributes were Goodness, Passion, and Darkness (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas). Later, she was split up into two separate goddesses, one of Goodness and one of Evil; and the Celts (who did everything in threes) created a central, third goddess in whom the attribute of Passion was expressed. In the Arthurian legends, these three deities appear under the names of the Lady of the Lake, Guinevere, and Morgan Ie Fay.

Whereas Morgan attempted to bring about the death of Arthur, Ninianne, the Lady of the Lake, did her utmost to protect him from harm. She was the foster mother of Lancelot, bringing him up from a baby on her island of Avalon; and her relationship to Arthur was also essentially a maternal one. She came to his aid in his battle with Accolon, and rescued him from a sorceress who made him forget Guinevere with the aid of a magic ring. It was also she who provided him with the enchanted sword, Excalibur; and the image of the hand rising out of the lake holding the famous sword is still one of the most powerful in Arthurian Romance:
“At long last, they came to the lake of Avalon, and Arthur said: “How sad that I have broken my magic sword!”
“You shall have another,” replied Merlin.

And as Arthur looked into the centre of the lake, an arm clothed in white samite broke the surface of the water, and in its hand, a sword and scabbard gleamed with coloured jewels. “This is the magic sword Excalibur,” said Merlin,”and it will, be given to you by the Lady of’ the Lake.”

The Lady gave him the sword on condition that the king would grant her, when the time came, anything she desired. The price, of course, was to be his own life.

The sword was the symbol of’ Arthur’s manhood, his strength and vitality; and it was reclaimed by the lady when the king lay dying on the field of Camlann. Ninianne, the giver of the sword, was the youthful deity who was believed to preside over the morning of a great hero’s life; the time of his journey to the top of the Great Wheel; to power and adulthood. As goddess of’ Spring, she also represented health, youth and enthousiasm. After Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere, she significantly faded from the legends, her place being taken by Morgan Ie Fay, the spirit of degeneration, who presided over the hero’s inevitable decline into age and death. Once more, the beautiful maiden had turned herself into the hideous hag of’ death.

Since Morgan and Ninianne were conceptually two different aspects of’ the same deity, each held within her the seeds of’ the other. Morgan, the goddess of’ Death, was also a healer and restorer of life who promised to tend the wounds of’ Arthur on he island of’ Avalon (Life of Merlin). The Lady of’ the Lake, on the other hand, was named as Merlin’s murderer in several of the romances. In the Suite du Merlin, for example, the magician fell helplessly in love with the Lady after he saw her at Arthur’s wedding, and assuming the form of’ a virile young man, followed her about wherever she went. Ninianne heartlessly extracted from him all his magic spells, and in the Perilous Forest sealed him up for eternity in the tomb of two slain lovers, using spells which he himself’ had taught her. Another version of his fate - in the Vulgate Merlin - tells how she placed his head upon her lap and lulled him to sleep as they sat together beneath whitethorn tree in the forest of Broceliande (near Carlisle, according to Chrétien). Then, weaving a spell about him, she imprisoned him for all time in a magical tower of’ mist. This latter version seems to derive from the famous apple-tree poem in the Welsh Black Book of Carmarthen - describing the meeting of the historical Merlin, the bard of Gwendolleu, with a beautiful woman in the forest of Celydon (Northern Scotland).:

“Sweet apple-tree that grows so well;
Food I used to eat beneath it to please a fair maid,
When, with my shield on my shoulder and my sword of my thigh
I slept all alone in the wood of Celydon....
Despised I am by her who is the colour of swans...!’

© Ryszard.Antolak